How will Allen Iverson fit into the Pistons offense?
Michael Curry brought in a system where more players handle the ball, where motion is emphasized and multi-players become threats. Is that compatible with Iverson's skills?
Joe Dumars thinks so.
"The traditional offense has a point guard jsut standing up top," he said. "There's no sense in trading for Allen Iverson if you're just going to have him standing there. But if you're going to do a lot of movement, cutting, slashing, that plays right into his game."
The biggest adjustment for Iverson will be meshing with Richard Hamilton, one of the game's best off-the-ball, catch-and-shoot players. He's going to have to keep Hamilton, whose skills meshed so well with a patient point man like Chaunce Billups, happy by allowing Rip to score his usual 18-20 points a game. Hamilton, who hasn't talked to the media for two days about the trade, is despondent over the loss of his backcourt partner. Iverson will have to win him, and the rest of his teammates, over by making the sacrifices he promised during his introductory press conference Tuesday.
"Both have great basketball instincts and that's the key," Dumars said. "It's not so much how you run plays or what set it is, it's do you have basketball instincts? He has incredible basketball instincts. He averages seven, seven-and-a-half assists a game. That will be a real aggressive backcourt right there and that's what we're shooting for."